Houston, Day Three

Outlook and Visioning with ExxonMobil

The group spent the day at the ExxonMobil Headquarters in Spring, Texas, about an hour drive North of the Houston city center. Spanning 285 acres, the complex looks like a futuristic college campus, with tall glass buildings and large stretches of open outdoor space. Opened in 2014, the campus serves as a home to Exxon’s Upstream, Downstream, Chemicals and XTO Energy companies and their associated service groups. Altogether, it accommodates 10,000 employees and visitors, with an on-campus daycare and wellness center. 

 

To start off the day, our group met with Adam Usadi, a Dartmouth ’88 who heads Research and Development at Exxon, and Abigail Rodgers GR ‘90, who manages Global and Public Relations. After brief introductions, Adam gave a presentation about R&D at Exxon. In his overview, we covered topics such as the dual challenge of balancing energy and emissions, energy efficiency, de-carbonization, and new developments in low-carbon technologies such as membrane distillation, biofuels, and fuel-cells.  

Adam focused more on big-scale solutions, grouped primarily into two categories: improving energy-efficiency and cutting back on energy usage. When it came to non-OECD countries such as China and India, Adam emphasized the need to cut back on carbon emissions by utilizing new (but expensive) technology. When it came to OECD countries like the US, who have the highest carbon emissions per capita, Adam focused ways to improve energy efficiency, but didn't necessarily  challenge us to think about how we can cut back on our exorbitant energy use.  

 

The noon was structured to have more back and forth dialogue. Exxon set up a lunch panel and invited five additional Dartmouth alumni who worked on the campus. The panel included geologists who focused on upstream exploration as well as staff from other department such as diversity and inclusion. The dialogue was Q&A driven, and we got a chance to ask questions to people who were very experienced and knowledgeable of the oil energy industry. We built upon previous conversations we had on Tuesday with staff at the oil extraction site and the rig repair dock. 

 

As a STEM focused person who finds comfort in numbers and visual modeling, perhaps the most interesting part of the day was the afternoon, when Lisa Emerson, a Dartmouth ’01, gave us a 3D seismic tour in one of the facility’s Virtual Reality rooms. Lisa works as a geologist in upstream oil production, and a major part of upstream involves locating where reserves of oils might be. During the hour-long presentation, Lisa walked us through several models and videos that gave us a fantastic visual of how geologists at Exxon use data gathered from seismic imaging of the ocean floor to map out the geological landscape of the strata and predict the location of oil reserves. 

 

If the computational modeling wasn’t complicated enough, Lisa also covered the steps involved after a geologist believes they have located a potential oil reserve. Upstream oil, as it turns out, isn’t simple as finding oil, drilling a pipe, and sucking the oil out. After an oil reserve is believed to be found, the geologist team must present their findings to higher level managers. If the results are determined to be significant, there are many economic and political factors that are weighed before any operations are carried out. Questions are asked to analyze the economically profitability and political feasibility of the project. How hard it is to drill in the target location? Is there any existing infrastructure? What are current laws and regulations for drilling in this area? What is the current political atmosphere? 

Throughout the day, I was continually blown away by the complexity of the oil industry, even at just the exploration stage. As an engineering major at Dartmouth, I hope to pursue a career in the energy industry. I had previously imagined such a path would involve renewables and companies that focus on wind and solar and grid infrastructure. But after learning about the extent of the oil and gas industry, I realize I can have just as big an impact – if not greater - working for a powerful and influential company like ExxonMobil. Whether it’s developing a smart grid to better incorporate renewable energy or improving drilling technology to be safer and less environmentally impactful, I’m curious to see how I will fit into the future big picture of energy. 

--Eric Chen '21